A devastating volcanic eruption and two decades of wars have forced this airport into abandonment - and created the best playground a Congolese street child could hope for.

Photographer Christopher Michael Brown captured these breathtaking images of Goma Airport, during a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A brief lapse in security meant that the street children could guide him through the planes and show him how they have been selling the parts at a nearby market.

The New York-based photographer said: 'One is generally prohibited from photographing this airport but in mid-December 2012 after the M23 rebel force which occupied Goma left and before the FARDC, military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, returned to the city, a security vacuum meant that nobody was guarding this section of the airport.

'Children guided me through the planes and I discussed what had happened with my Congolese fixer.'

Mount Nyiragongo, just outside Goma, erupted in January 2012 and 400,000 people were evacuated from the city across the Rwandan border into neighbouring Gisenyi.

Lava covered the northern end of the runway at Goma International Airport, leaving the southern two-thirds unusable.

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Photographer Michael Christopher Brown shows how the abandoned planes at Goma Airport have become an ideal playground for Congolese street children

The New York based photographer was shown around the airport by the children and told how a volcanic eruption had covered the runway in lava

The recent history of Goma has been dominated by the volcano and the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, which in turn fuelled the First and Second Congo Wars

Some of the street children sell the plane parts which are made into stoves and other items to be sold on the streets of Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

In January 2002 Mount Nyiragongo erupted and lava covered the northern end of the runway at Goma Airport, meaning that it could no longer be used

More than 400,000 people were evacuated from the city across the Rwandan border into neighbouring Gisenyi after the devastating eruption

The photographer's guide, Horeb, said: 'I helped move this plane after I and many of my friends living near the airport lost our homes to lava on the first day'